Attack the AlQuaeda Stronghold! New Team Appears?
by Tripolar Studios
Summary: Smudge and Lilli are professional Pre-Kishin hunters, working for the DWMA International Alliance to hunt down anyone in their way. Their goal? To become the next Freakin' Lethal Team.  Set a few decades after the first Soul Eater ark.


If only it was another open-and-shut mission.  
>It was really an egotistic pratfall to Smudge - they were given so many names, like The Next Maka and Soul because of their skill - to be put up in stocks and be led out to an execution ditch. He mentally slapped himself, for the situation not giving himself the opportunity. They had gotten so close; Osama was literally right within arm's reach. Lilli was poised in his right hand, while in his left was a crackling green orb of his Soul Wavelength, ready to stop the mad Pre-Kishin's reign of terror once and for all. But no; he was shot in the back at the right time, right as the finishing blow was to be struck, a measly bullet betwixt the shoulder blade was all it took to fell him. He remembered the gut-wrenching feeling as Lilli was dragged away screaming, trying to fight, but she was knocked out right before she could transform.<br>Of course, the feeling was short lived once he, too, was knocked out and drugged, robbing him of control over his wavelength and proper thinking.  
>Forced from his mental berating, he found himself bent over a bloodstained ditch on a rough sandstone floor. A pungent smell of blood and rot rose to him, and he recoiled with disgust, then to have his head pushed foreword again by his captor. The stronghold, which took them so long to find, was carved into a stone outcropping overlooking the Pakistan border. Smudge believed the term was "hiding in plain sight" and for whatever reason, neither the Pakistani militia nor the American Navy weren't able to find the base. Was it maybe due to the Witch that they had slain before entering the stronghold? It would make sense; she was able to cast some pretty amazing illusionary magic.<br>He swung his head around, attempting to locate his absent Weapon. But all he got was his emerald hair thrown into his face. This proved a great annoyance, because he couldn't blow the unruly hairs aside. Not to mention the drug he was given was hindering his Soul Perception, so he was practically blind; they didn't bother removing the bullet, either. By now, it was probably infected. Joy.  
>The execution chamber was in a large, stone amphitheater, with many glaring men in balaclavas and AKs strapped to their backs on the seats.<br>He heard doors opening, and out of the edge of his sight he saw a familiar figure with a black bag forced to her knees. A rustle, and the bag was lifted, showing his partner's face. Lilli had a shiny tan with a few artfully-placed freckles here and there. Her cinnamon-red hair was out of its ponytail, allowing it to flow over her neck and face. Smudge was particularly upset to find that her blue, purple Spongebob-style flower tanktop was torn and blotched, and the same to say with her Patty Thompson-style shorts - "She's my idol. I grew up trying to be like her," she had confessed once. He also realized that his favorite cabby hat was nowhere to be seen. Smudge made a mental note to beat the guards with extra zeal when he got out of his stocks.  
>She caught sight of him, green-and-blue eyes flashing, and stoically nodded at him with a small smile. He returned the nod, with a bigger smile. They had been in worse scrapes than this; they'll get out, somehow.<br>Apparently the drug was wearing off slightly, because Smudge felt the fibrillating demonic aura of Osama approaching behind him, along with four commanders with their little Kishin-Egg souls; they seemed like candles to the fireplace in comparison. One of them brought out something, and began reading off something in Arabic, probably the death sentence. Broken plans, theories, and tactics flew through both of their heads as the amphitheater was filled with the death penalty, along with the fierce response of dozens of brainwashed humans. Finally, the lesser Kishin-Egg stopped talking, and some cold metal was placed against the back of Smudge's neck.  
>Great.<br>_Khamsatu_! Okay, even better, the countdown started, he thought venomously.  
><em>Arba'atu<em>! His mind raced for a way out.  
><em>Thalathatu<em>! It came to him; use his Soul Wavelength to eject the bullet, subduing the gunman, and thus gloriously saving his partner.  
><em>Ithnani<em>! But would it work? What if they fire regardless of the injury?  
><em>Wahidun<em>! He'd have to try.  
>With all of his willpower, he forced a portion of his Wavelength into the wound. The plan worked; when his Soul came into contact with the foreign substance, the bullet shot out of his back, striking the gunman in the abdomen.<br>The next few seconds were a blur. Lilli stood up and kicked her captor in the groin. Both gunmen squealed in pain and staggered back. She escaped her stocks by transforming, and soon helped Smudge do the same. The stockades shuddered slightly, and fell away as her transformed hand cleanly sliced through the wood. Then, through the angered screams and hoarse shouts, amidst all of the confusion, he hugged her shakily..  
>"I thought," he whispered, "that you were gonna die,"<br>Lilli smiled slightly, but pulled out of the hug with a reprimanding, "We can hug later."  
>He nodded slowly, wiping a solitary tear from his violet eye. They stood up as one, staring into the mad demon's eyes. Lilli had transformed into her Weapon form again: a giant, three-pronged Chakram as tall as she was. There were many carvings along the rim that appeared as the white aura left the metal; each design eventually leading to a curved spike along the outer rim. The warm metal looked and felt like silver with the designs a deep red and a blue gem in the center of each spike.<br>After she transformed, she flew into his hands and he sank into a fighting stance, glaring at his opposition.  
>Roaring with inhuman avarice, the Pre-Kishin swung his arm at them threateningly, letting lose 50 guns worth of AK ammunition from the stands. None of them hit their mark. Lilli had projected her soul into the vicinity, manifesting itself around them in a state of semi-tangibility. Any form of intrusive matter was repelled for an indeterminable amount of time. Because of this, Lilli was praying to any and every god and goddess she could think of that it would hold until the gunmen run out of bullets.<br>Thankfully, it did. When it wore off, thousands of cartridges littered the sandstone floor, and whatever didn't fall to the floor rebounded to their owners with a satisfying report of many bodies falling to the ground with harsh cries, followed by some stray showers of blood. Altogether a nice way to dispatch the cronies.  
>Osama, infuriated, screeched in fury and let loose a corona of Pre-Kishin energy into the air. Smudge shuddered; he would never get over the feeling of demon aura.<br>"You alright, Fuzzy?" Lilli asked bracingly, through the reflection of her Chakram.  
>He shrugged in response.<p>

To their amazement, he slew his four henchmen with a bang and a rustle of cloaks as they crumpled, lifeless, to the stone floor and Kishin-Egg souls wafted forlornly into the air. Dropping his human disguise, the demon grew a machine gun from his left arm, and his right fist ballooned to mammoth sizes. His arms swelled with dark energy to accommodate the newly grown limbs, while his upper body followed suit. The dirty turban elongated to cover his face in a fashion similar to the texts that referenced the Kishin Asura, but it only covered his face so that his nose and burning eyes showed. He also grew taller, and his robe grew with him. All in all, not the scariest Smudge or Lilli had seen (Lilli still had nightmares about the Hash-Slinging Slasher), but still formidable.

Smudge stood, and putting on the best countenance of determination as he could muster and standing tall, he shouted across the amphitheater like he had so many times before, "Terrorist Leader Osama bin Laden! Your crimes against humanity are innumerable; the worst of which was the consumption of human souls..." the beast snarled, "WHICH, in turn, has corrupted your soul beyond the bounds of normality. Now, by the privileges and the laws of the DWMA International Alliance..." he sharply angled his body toward the demon, clutching the spires of his Chakram Weapon, "Your soul is mine!"

The Pre-Kishin began his onslaught, swinging at them with his giant fist while following up with his hand-turned-railgun. Lilli threw up the shield again as Smudge made a dash at the offender, causing the bullets pepper his new gray flesh. Instead of piercing, however, they flowed back into his body with a crackle.

The Kishin-Egg shot again, narrowly missing Smudge as he executed a graceful mid-air corkscrew tumble, exiting out of it with a kick to the monster's chest chest. But another spray of bullets later, one did strike him, and the pain stopped his escape and he smashed into the opposite wall.

Lilli reverted to human form to make a quick assessment of the wound.

Between her hastiness to get him back on his feet and monitoring Osama's recovery time, she barely identified that there was no entry wound. But around the strike area Smudge's leg was rapidly swelling.

"Can ya get up?"

He nodded, and managed to stagger to his feet.

The Kishin Egg spared no time taking advantage of this. While their backs were turned, he leaped a good two feet into the air and vanished with a pop.

They both looked around. "Where the hell did he go?"

"I'll try Perception," the Meister grunted, and closed his eyes slowly. Lilli watched his face as his eyes darted frantically in their sockets, until he opened them again with a horrified expression.

His instincts took over. Ignoring the burning pain in his leg, he caught Lilli by the arm and tugged her to the left, landing safely three yards away, just as the Pre-Kishin reappeared where they were seconds ago and slammed his fist down on the stone floor. And seeing the crushed rock and cracks that radiated from the impact, they were both happy that they moved.

Now he was confused, lifting his giant fist to check if he had gotten them, and growling when the beast finally observed that their crushed and mangled bodies were nowhere to be found.

The duo took the opportunity.

In perfect tandem, they grasped hands and shouted the trademark, "Soul Resonance!", catching his attention and turning to them with a roar.

Dust kicked up as a blast of combined Soul energy was released into the area with a bang. Smudge's soul; tall and green, and Lilli's soul; a little smiley face and sea blue, merged together for the first time that month and became a turquoise sphere of light. Their consciousnesses also combined at that moment, and after the initial recombobulation, Lilli changed back into Weapon form.

_He's strong, but he has a slow recovery and reaction time._ Smudge's consciousness said. _If we hit him with two consecutive strikes and then Enharmonic before he has time to recover, that should kill him._

Lilli's consciousness spoke with a verbal smirk, _Then let's crack him wide open, Partner._

Smudge grinned darkly.

"Let's go!"

His pain gone with the merging of their souls, he launched himself towards the beast, which had only recently noticed that he was there. A crack resounded when he brought his foot down upon the monster's cranium, and he screamed as a punch hit him in the spine, causing him to bend back. Placing a foot on his face for leverage, Smudge sprang back a good distance away as the beast roared in frustration.

On queue, Lilli's Weapon body grew and shone white as Enharmonic started up. When it was finished, the light vanished from the polished metal, revealing that the weapon had grown another two feet in circumference, along with the spikes growing larger and more curved, the gems replaced with eyes, and the silver glinted gold in the sun's setting rays.

When it finished, he threw her vertically.

The reason they named their attack Enharmonic was that when she was thrown, the air would hit the surface of the metal while it was saturated with their Wavelengths, and this created a chilling whine.

It was quite beautiful to watch; the Wavelengths would interfere with the air around it causing a trail of distorted light to follow her. She spun so fast that she drew in dust clouds behind her that were cleaved in two by the air disturbance. It was even more satisfying to see the body of Osama bin Laden to be bisected in such a clean manner that - if not for the arms - even Kid Death wouldn't have helped but applaud if he saw.

The terrorist-turned-Kishin-egg had no time to cry out as his body unravelled, flaked, and disappeared into oblivion, revealing his glowing red core.

They dropped the Resonance once Lilli returned to him, and morphed back to human form. Smudge stood with his hands on his knees, panting hard. Lilli, however, licked her lips and made short work of the floating, corroded soul.

"So," she said, winking at him playfully, "Mission accomplished?"

He huffed, but also grinned and said, "Mission accomplished." They laughed. Becoming sober, Lilli cocked her head and looked at his calf; however, the swelling was gone.

Smudge traced her stare, and shrugged, "I bet our Resonance drove it out. Probably the bullets were just fragments of his soul." This only got a confused stare from her as she tried to work out the logic. "Think Patty and Liz, dork." He rolled his eyes at her. She nodded in cognition, but gave him a light punch on the arm.

A shaft of orange light hit them as they peered through the gaping hole that Enharmonic had created. Despite the blistering heat and threat of land mines, the scene was quite beautiful; the sand reflected the red hues of the sun; while the random stone casted long, quavering shadows, and the occasional dune reflected stark white against the horizon.

"Whew!" Lilli sighed, looking across the landscape, "It's gonna be one heck of a bus ride before we get to the next airport."

"We could always get our mirror..."

"They stole our backpack when they got us."

"Better start looking now: I mean, it's only a mountain fortress."

They laughed again at the admittedly lame joke. Even so, they'd get home again. They always have and always will. And, though they would probably be deported to yet another godforsaken hole to ferret out an evil human not much later, they still had each other.

Because they are the next Freakin' Lethal Team.


End file.
